1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to a method, or system, for a service process to provide a service to a client. The field of the invention is the delivery of services via computer networks.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Authentication and authorization of clients by servers pose a problem that has in theory been “solved”, but in practice it is a persistent problem full of pitfalls. The practical result is that the secure (i.e., authenticated and authorized) provision of service occurs hardly at all on the Internet, and that users have little confidence in existing services.
Numerous causes are identifiable for this situation, including:
when a service uses the SSL protocol to authenticate the customer and to make the service provisioning secure, SSL must be capable of transporting (“tunneling”) the service provisioning protocol. This is not possible with protocols based on UDP. Simple UDP-based protocols are DNS (Domain Name Service), TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol), SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), Syslog protocol, etc. More complex examples include video and audio streaming (such as RealAudio and RealVideo), multi-user gaming protocols and similar;
when a service uses IPSEC, the following problem arises. IPSEC sets up a secure connection (“transport pipe”) between two machines (computers, routers or combinations thereof), one that is separate from the services (client/servers) that use it. Several services may use the same IPSEG pipe. Use of the IPSEC authentication as an authentication for the service is similar to a person accepting the authenticity of the sender of a postcard because the postman is able to identify himself with means of identification. Apart from this, IPSEC is a far more difficult protocol than SSL to operate, both technically and from the point of view of security;
when use is made of a combination of IPSEC and SSL for the above-mentioned purposes, the transmitted data is encrypted twice (once by IPSEC, once by SSL), which drastically reduces the speed of transport, and makes it more difficult to put the connection into operation. This quickly becomes unacceptable, particularly for real-time data transport (multimedia services);
to the extent that authentication and authorization do take place, they are usually interwoven with an existing service, which causes greater problems as the service itself becomes larger and more complex.